347 



THE GOAT FAMILY. 



Goats do not generally range as far north as the sheep, 

 but they live at higher altitudes and incline to the steep 

 cliffs and mountain regions, where their remarkable 

 climbing powers enable them to speed where other ani- 

 mals could scarcely get a foot hold. They connect the 

 antelope with the sheep, which they approach so closely 

 in their internal organization that many authorities be- 

 lieve that they should be considered as belonging to the 

 same family, although they are of widely differing 

 natures and appearance. 



The Goat even when enslaved is restless, bold and 

 independent, fearlessly facing the enemies who assail it, 

 and is always familiar and capricious, wandering at will 

 away from its fellows to seek the crags where the shrubs 

 it craves are to be found. 



Goats all have hard callosities on their knees, short 

 tails, hairy muzzles, and a more or less distinct beard 

 upon the chin of the males, M'ho are further characterized 

 by a strong odor. In the few cases where foot glands 

 are present they are found only on the forefeet. Both 

 sexes have horns, those of the males rising close together 

 on the head above the plane of the forehead, and grow- 

 ing upward and backward to a considerable length, but 

 seldom showing the spiral twist which is a characteristic 

 of the horns of all sheep except the Ovis-tragelaphus. 

 Goats shoAV no gland pits in the skull below the eyes, and 

 the outline of the face instead of being curved like that 

 of the sheep is straight ; like the latter thcA^ are covered 

 with a mixture of wool and hair, but in the sheep the 

 wool forms the essential covering for the body, while in 

 the goat the hair predominates. 



All wild goats are frequentl}^ spoken of as Ibexes, 

 but that name rightly belongs only to the feAV species 

 with long, flat, mottled scimetar-like horns, dwelling in 

 the Himalayas, and on the higher mountains of South 

 Eastern Europe, Syria. Arabia, and Abysinriia. The 

 Ibexes all have a uniform coloration, varying with age 

 and the season from a grizzly grey to various shades of 



